fires of purgatory, through which the soul must be purified from the sinful dross of earth; when he remembered that he must only approach that Holy Being through the mediation and intercession of saints and angels, a feeling of awe, almost of alienation, would drive away the sweet approach of love; again he would fast, give alms, do penance, and if conscience was thus satisfied for a time, it was with a false peace, unlike the scriptural confidence of those who, being justified through faith, have peace with God.

So long as opinions are held merely as speculative, influencing only the head and not at all affecting the heart, it matters comparatively little, as far as the salvation of the individual be concerned, whether he be a Romanist or a Protestant; but if once aroused from his former state of indifference and false security, aware of his danger, he anxiously seeks for an answer to that momentous, all-important question, “What must I do to be saved?" then it is that the Bible and the Romish Church give very different answers, propose very different remedies to effect the cure of an awakened conscience. To this question the Romish Church replies :-" Do penance, fast, give alms, confess sins to the priest who alone can absolve you from their guilt, receive and believe in the saving efficacy of the last sacraments administered by the ministers of the one true Church, obediently submit to their spiritual authority, commit your departing soul into the hand of our gracious lady, leave money to pay for the masses necessary for the repose of your soul; this do, and thou shalt be saved."

your

"What shall I do to be saved?" The Bible and the Protestant Church reply:-Believe. Do nothing to merit salvation, it is impossible. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe with the heart that standing in your place He bore the punishment due to your sins, that by his perfect obedience He magnified and made honourable a law which you have broken, and thus His merits (not the merits of those who have not enough to justify themselves) shall be imputed to you for righteousness. Then, having found peace with God through faith in Jesus, do those good works which God has before ordained that we should walk in them. Bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Do it from love to him who has freely. pardoned you; do it to prove that much has been forgiven, therefore you love much. This is the reply given by the Bible; this is the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, good tidings of great joy to the sin-sick soul. Yes, this is the Gospel which the devil hates, because it deprives him of his usurped dominion over the hearts of man, and therefore hating it he strives to obscure its light, to lessen its freeness, to pervert its meaning; but what peace can the really awakened sinner find by trusting to works and doings of his own? No, in the expressive words of inspiration, "The bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it, and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it." Hubert had felt this truth with bitter force on his bed of sickness, in the near prospect of eternity, and therefore he determined to heap on his sandy foundation of good works more of those mighty nothings, which could not stand when the rain and floods should beat VOL. IX.-September, 1847. U New Series, No. 21.

upon it. Thus he resolved to renounce the world and all its innocent friendships, and if he could obtain the consent of his father, to take on himself the solemn vows of ordination, that thus he might spend the whole of his time in preparing himself and others to merit the glories of heaven.

For many months past he had suffered painful and incessant conflict in his own mind, from a growing feeling of compassion towards those who differed from him in religion, and the fear that towards those, compassion was a criminal weakness, condemned by the Church, and unworthy of one devoted to her interests. Father Adrian had often assured him that his friendship with Ernest Willoughby had been a snare laid to entrap his feet, and cautioned him to avoid forming similar ones in future, and Hubert resolved, firmly resolved, to follow his advice; yet the more he studied the doctrines of the Romish Church, as respected the treatment of heretics, the more his mind revolted from it as equally opposed to reason, humanity, and religion. Yet Hubert argued he must be wrong in these feelings, and often strove, though unsuccessfully, to subdue them. During his tour through Italy, he intended to maintain a regular correspondence with Father Adrian, for whom he felt great esteem. Hubert, who had a mind at once refined and cultivated, could not fail to derive much pleasure from travelling in a country which abounds with the most lovely and soothing scenerybut where, alas, the beauties of nature form a sad contrast to the dark and fearful passions that rage in the breasts of its inhabitants.

(To be continued.)

A REVIEW OF MARTIN LUTHER'S VIEWS COMPARED WITH THE ROMANISTS', ON CLOISTER VOWS, CELIBACY, POVERTY, AND OBEDIENCE TO THE RULE OF THEIR ORDER, AND DISPENSATIONS.

ARRANGED BY REV. C. SMYTH, B.A., OXON., FROM HIS "GERMAN TREATISES," 1847.

"THOSE who allege," says D'Aubigné on the Reformation of the sixteenth century, "that it was brought about by offering the possessions of the religious orders to the princes, marriage to the priests, and liberty to the people, strangely misapprehend its nature. No doubt, a useful employment of funds which, up to that time, had nourished the monks in laziness; no doubt, marriage and liberty, both of which come from God, might promote the spread of the Reformation; but the moving force did not lie there. In fact, everywhere throughout Germany, monks were to be found putting off their frocks and hoods at the gates of their monastery. . . . the greater number felt convinced that the monastic life was opposed to the will of God, and to the Christian life."

LUTHER'S REPLY TO THE ARCHDUKE GEORGE.

The Reformer was charged by the Prince with having faithlessly renounced his vow, and turning apostate. For Duke George's un

gracious charges the Reformer returns thanks, and declares that he cannot do otherwise than consider himself greatly honoured by the accusation, and he uses the following strong phrases, viz.: "For I would much prefer that the executioner should stretch me on the wheel, or burn me to ashes, than that Duke George should commend me for being a virtuous and true monk. It is true I was a pious friar, and so rigidly observed the rule of my order, that I dare affirm, if ever a monk reached heaven through monachism, I am sure I should. And this will all my cloister companions testify, who knew me; and had I remained a little longer in the convent, I should have worn myself to death with watching, praying, reading, and other hard employment. If I am perjured, I am not so to Duke George, but to Jesus Christ; and should Christ charge me with perjury, then I certainly must be guilty; but should my Redeemer do no such thing, when Duke George and I must stand face to face before his judgment seat, what will my adversary answer, though the pontiff and all the world stand by him? I feel certain that Duke George has sense enough to perceive that no lord should condemn the servant of another master, and certainly in this business of the monastic vow I never was that Prince's servant or subject, as the Almighty knows, and the duke himself. Add to this, I never took any oath in the cloister, or when I was a friar; indeed, monks are not made to swear, but they are required to promise and to vow, to make a profession. The friarlings do not call those who renounce the vow, by the term perjured, but apostates; but little do I care to stand and argue about words."

The Reformer charges the monastic orders with the folly of comparing their profession with Christ's baptism, nor could they deny the imputation. Such doctrines were received throughout the world, such practice was in vogue, and, adds Luther, "I also was greeted with good wishes when I made my profession; I was congratulated by the prior, by the convent, and my confessor, who told me I had become as innocent as a child, when it comes fresh and pure from baptism. Indeed I myself felt the highest satisfaction at the sudden transformation I had undergone, and that too with so much expedition, and with so little labour. But afterwards, when any little temptation arose, I fell from my confidence; I found that neither baptism nor monachism could help me, and I became the veriest wretch upon earth, and I regarded the Saviour in no other light than that of a stern judge, from whose sight I longed to fly, and yet could never escape."

The Reformer now addresses every friar in the following terms :— "I utter such language for your sake, my brother, whether you have embraced or have renounced your order, whether you live within or without the convent, and do not turn a credulous ear to Duke George and his clamour; I have learned the Holy Scripture with immense pains for above twenty years, with prayer and watchfulness; but the Romanists are quite deceived on this head, and know not what they say. Let them revile me as they will, only let them not add the disgrace of calling me a true pious monk; for a friar I neither will be, nor allow myself so to be called; let Duke George and his party put on their monkish hood when they lie on their death-beds, and die in the cowl, and see whether they have chosen the surest road to bliss."

Henry VIII. of England wrote in the following terms to Martin Luther, in a letter, replying to one addressed to him by the Reformer :— "In the first place, you dissuade people from adhering to the chaste celibate, which is a rule expressly recommended in the Gospel; and at last, you yourself cast it aside, though you formerly embraced it. The chastity which you vowed, promised, and devoted to God, you renounce, which you are bound to preserve, by the united authority and testimonies of the sacred writings; as in Ps. lxxv.; Vow and pay unto the Lord. " To these accusations for his renunciation of friar's orders, the Reformer used the following language;-" Under the Papacy the world has been as much stocked with sects and parties, as it was in the days of heathen antiquity, with its various orders, foundations, churches, pilgrimages, brotherhoods, &c. The Pontiff has founded them all, and they must needs be called holy orders, holy states, holy pillars, holy lights of Christendom. But the Gospel at last comes, and preaches concerning but one general order of Christianity, and one body in Christ, without divisions; for here (says St. Paul), there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither barefoot Franciscan, nor Carthusian, &c. But were we, on the other hand, to invent any other and new brotherhood, like their fraternities, this would not have been called an innovation. The Pontiff would have directly confirmed it, and other men would have willingly espoused it, and given it joint honours with themselves. Yet because we praise the general order of Christ's faith, and call it the best and holiest state, yes, the only true and right fraternity, we are charged by our adversaries as the authors of disunion, division, and disorder."

It

In his Preface to a Treatise bearing the title of "Cloister Vows," the Reformer addresses his father, John Luther, and describes himself as having entered the sixteenth year of his profession of monachism. appears from his own words that the son had embraced the cloistered life at first without the father's knowledge and consent. The father, John Luther, trembled at the rashness of his son Martin, for making the vow of perpetual celibacy, commencing at the early and perilous age of twenty-two years. Luther tells his father, that the latter had used this argument with his son, and had pointed to the many fatal consequences in the conduct of the conventual devotees, and reminds his father how much the latter had recommended him to marry prudently and respectably. But at that time the future Reformer was inexorably bent on leading a religious life in a cell; and yet the warning voice of his father sunk deeply into Luther's conscience, and seemed as if it came from above. The following language of the Reformer is translated literally for the reader and deserves attention, viz.:-"It appears to me to have been the design of the Almighty, indeed I now perceive most thoroughly that He determined I should be made experimentally acquainted with the wisdom and learning of the High Schools, and with cloistered sanctity;-that I should personally and completely see through it all; that is, that I should behold the innumerable evils and abuses that are of secret occurrence. And hence the abettors of the celibate rule cannot charge me with running down and opposing what was never presented before me as an eye-witness. I am therefore a monk, and yet not a monk ;—and I

am a new creature, not of the Pontiff's making, but of Christ's creation. For the Papal Father forms his creatures also, in his creation of idols and of idolaters, of whom I was one in my delusion,-in my deadly errors, from which divine grace has emancipated my soul. I, therefore, send you, dear father, this treatise, to show you the mighty power and marvellous signs which the Saviour has worked to redeem me from my monastic vows, and to make me a servant for the benefit of all mankind, and yet not the vassal of any, but to serve Him only. For surely He is my immediate bishop, my superior, my Lord, and my father and master, or I know none at all. And should the Pontiff condemn and destroy me, still it would be beyond his power to revive me from death with the view of repeating upon me his deadly blows. Let him put me to ban and excommunication. From him I am resolved never to ask absolution. I should not care, if your blood and mine were to be spilled, provided our deaths might but bring speedier judgment upon the Papal Pontifex at Rome. Let us both with our two lives and voices confess that Jesus Christ alone is Lord and God blessed for evermore ! May you, dear father, be blessed in Him! and may my mother, your Margaret, be blessed, and also the whole family."From my cell, Nov. 21, Anno M. D. 21.

(To be continued.)

DECLARATION OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND CONTRASTED WITH THAT OF THE CHURCH OF ROME, ON THE USE OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

THERE is, perhaps, no instance in which the difference between the Protestant and Romish mode of treating the Scriptures appears more striking than in the following.

England, in the solemn act of her Coronation Service, places the written word of truth in the hands of the Sovereign, as containing the principles by which the ruled and the rulers are alike to regulate their conduct. Such is one of the first acts of national recognition of the supremacy of Scripture. The Church and the nation alike offer homage therein to Him, who has vouchsafed that written revelation of his will to man.

In the grand State document issued by the Pope on his accession to the Pontificate, the Bible in the vulgar tongue is denounced, and the people exhorted to turn aside from it.

Leo XII., May, 1824.

From the Coronation Service of From the Encyclical Letter of Pope Her Majesty Queen Victoria. 28th June, 1838.

THE FOLLOWING OCCURS ON THE
PRESENTING OF THE HOLY

BIBLE.

Then shall the Dean of Westminster take the Holy Bible, which was carried in the Procession, from off the Altar, and deliver it to the Archbishop, who with the same Archbishops and Bishops as before, going along with him, shall present it

"You are not ignorant, venerable brethren, that a Society, commonly called the Bible Society, is boldly stalking throughout the world, which, contemning the traditions of the holy Fathers, and contrary to the well-known decree of the Council of Trent, is tending all its strength, and by every means to translate the Bible in the vulgar languages of all nations, or rather to pervert it. Whence it is greatly

to be feared lest as in some versions already known, so also in others, by a